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 Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
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General Information
The Augsburg Confession is a Lutheran Confession of Faith that was issued (1530) during the Reformation at the Diet of Augsburg. In 1530, Emperor Charles V convoked the diet as part of his effort to bring religious peace to Europe. He failed in his efforts, however, because he underestimated the fervor with which the followers of Martin Luther had already formulated a distinctive position. Philipp Melanchthon, one of the authors of the Confession, designed it to be relatively open to the Roman Catholic church on the right and to other reformed but non-Lutheran parties on the left. It affirmed inherited classic Christian doctrines. Its particular stress on Grace, as Luther had interpreted it in the writings of St. Paul, and its rejection of any righteousness based on human works and merits made it unacceptable to many other Western Christians. The Confession remains the primary statement of faith among Lutherans, who to this day expect their ministers at ordination to express fidelity to the way it interprets the biblical teachings.
Bibliography
Grane, Leif, ed., The Augsburg Confession: A Commentary,
trans. by John H. Rasmussen (1987).
The Augsburg Confession (1530) is the most widely accepted specifically Lutheran confession, or statement of faith. It was prepared by the German religious reformer Melanchthon, with Martin Luther's approval, as a summary document for the German nobility, who were called to a diet at Augsburg on June 25, 1530, by the Holy Roman emperor Charles V to present their "Lutheran" views.
Rejected there, and later amended, the confession - together with the Nicene, Apostles', and Athanasian creeds and Luther's Small Catechism and Large Catechism - constitutes the creedal basis for almost 80 million Lutheran Christians. The Augsburg Confession has been translated into most major languages and many dialects and in its original form is part of the constitution of most Lutheran churches. Lutheran clergy are frequently required to subscribe to it prior to ordination.
In its modern form the Augsburg Confession consists of 28 articles. The first 21 summarize Lutheran doctrine with special emphasis on justification. The second part of the Augsburg Confession reviews the "abuses" for which remedy was demanded, such as withholding the cup from the laity in Holy Communion and forbidding priests to marry.
Because of its conciliatory tone and brevity, the Augsburg Confession affected the entire Reformation movement, especially in such manifestations as the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles and the theology of the French religious reformer John Calvin, who signed a later version in 1540. In more recent times it has been the basis of fruitful ecumenical dialogue between Roman Catholics and Lutherans.
George Wolfgang Forell
They condemn all heresies which have sprung up against this article, as the Manichaeans, who assumed two principles, one Good and the other Evil- also the Valentinians, Arians, Eunomians, Mohammedans, and all such. They condemn also the Samosatenes, old and new, who, contending that there is but one Person, sophistically and impiously argue that the Word and the Holy Ghost are not distinct Persons, but that "Word" signifies a spoken word, and "Spirit" signifies motion created in things.
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